Hanukkah (Chanukah), the Festival of Lights, begins Sunday evening, December 22, 2019. It celebrates the Jewish victory over the Syrian-Greek regime of Antiochus. The Greeks attempted to Hellenize the Jews and abolish many Jewish practices and many Jews willingly complied. But a small band of the devout, led by the Matitiyahu the Priest and his son Judah Maccabee, led a successful rebellion against them. When they recaptured the Temple and relit the Menorah, a vial of pure oil sufficient to burn one day burned for eight days straight – the eight days of Hanukkah.